Sunday 30 March 2014

Mother - Short Story

Mother by Grace Paley


One day I was listening to the AM radio. I heard a song: "Oh, I Long to See My Mother in the Doorway." By God! I said, I understand that song. I have often longed to see my mother in the doorway. As a matter of fact, she did stand frequently in various doorways looking at me. She stood one day, just so, at the front door, the darkness of the hallway behind her. It was New Year's Day. She said sadly, If you come home at 4 a.m. when you're seventeen, what time will you come home when you're twenty? She asked this question without humor or meanness. She had begun her worried preparations for death. She would not be present, she thought, when I was twenty. So she wondered.

Another time she stood in the doorway of my room. I had just issued a political manifesto attacking the family's position on the Soviet Union. She said, Go to sleep for godsakes, you damn fool, you and your Communist ideas. We saw them already, Papa and me, in 1905. We guessed it all.

At the door of the kitchen she said, You never finish your lunch. You run around senselessly. What will become of you?

Then she died.
 
Naturally for the rest of my life I longed to see her, not only in doorways, in a great number of places—in the dining room with my aunts, at the window looking up and down the block, in the country garden among zinnias and marigolds, in the living room with my father.

They sat in comfortable leather chairs. They were listening to Mozart. They looked at one another amazed. It seemed to them that they'd just come over on the boat. They'd just learned the first English words. It seemed to them that he had just proudly handed in a 100 percent correct exam to the American anatomy professor. It seemed as though shed just quit the shop for the kitchen.
 
I wish I could see her in the doorway of the living room.
 
She stood there a minute. Then she sat beside him. They owned an expensive record player. They were listening to Bach. She said to him, Talk to me a little. We don't talk so much anymore.
 
I'm tired, he said. Can't you see? I saw maybe thirty people today. All sick, all talk talk talk talk. Listen to the music, he said. I believe you once had perfect pitch. I'm tired, he said.
 
Then she died.

Saturday 29 March 2014

F1 Must Open Up to Attract Younger Fans

Via Pit Pass

Formula One must become more accessible if it is to attract younger audiences. That is the opinion of many team bosses who agree that the sport has become too sterile and even alienates younger viewers with its policies towards the internet and social media.



With the largest set of regulation changes in its history, Formula One this year has the opportunity to reach a new demographic using the cutting-edge development of hybrid technologies as a catalyst. But while those within the paddock seem happy enough to give snappy sound bites as a collective they've failed to actually sell the sport beyond simply turning up for the scheduled nineteen races.
"That's particularly sad at this point of time because we've entered into an absolutely new era, particularly with regard to the powertrain unit," admitted Sauber boss Monisha Kaltenborn. "That's such a strong message.
"We have such a sophisticated hybrid system," she continued. "If you look at the consumer market, everyone's going to there. It's about less consumption, it's about such high efficiency and exactly that's what we are showcasing here - and what we should do at Formula One."
But even if the sport was able to sell that message one of the biggest difficulties it would face is engaging with the teenage Joe Public; a demographic the sport is missing from its current fan base.
"The younger audience today is one that have a lot of things thrown at them and have a lot of entertainment options," explained Pirelli motor sport director Paul Hembery, who suggests the sport should humanise itself.
"It's one of the few motorsport areas I think where we could be doing a lot more in promoting the personalities of the drivers," he continued. "I think it's a shame sometimes that we have some great, amazing - the best - drivers in the world but maybe they're not promoted as individuals as much as they should be."
Much of the problem is driven by marketing-minded PR departments who stage manage much of what drivers say and extends even up to the commercial rights holder, Formula One Management, and its strict policy on sites like YouTube. While both attempt to protect the sport's intellectual property, such hard lines could in fact be hurting the business by alienating fans according to Caterham's Cyril Abiteboul.

"We need to find the right balance between the accessibility, exclusivity and value," he reasoned.

"There is a belief right now that more exclusivity creates value. Maybe this was true, maybe it's less true with new media where it's more the distribution and our people need to react with content that is creating value.
"Look at Facebook," the Frenchman added. "There is nothing exclusive in Facebook and I think that the value of the IPO of Facebook is quite historic.
"Maybe a lack of exclusivity maybe does not mean a lack of value."

But given the slowness with which it picked up the internet and social media, not to mention its attempts to monetise every aspect (such as live timing) – a business model which inherently makes the sport more exclusive - there are no signs that Formula One's culture is going to change anytime soon. Instead the dramatic regulation changes which could have attracted a host of new fans, had they been better marketed, will likely be chalked up as another missed opportunity.

- Mat Coch

Williams F1 Special (video)

Via Sky Sports

Thursday 27 March 2014

Minute's Silence Confirmed for Missing Flight

Via ESPN F1 

Like many teams Mercedes will run a message of support for the missing flight © Twitter
"The Formula One grid will hold a minute's silence before the beginning of the race on Sunday in memory of the passengers of missing flight MH370.

There is a tragic backdrop to this year's race, with an international search effort still ongoing to find any trace of the plane which went missing after departing Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8, which is now thought to have crashed in the Indian Ocean. There were 239 people on board.

Though the Malaysian Grand Prix is one of the high points of the country's sporting calendar, this year preparations have been significantly toned down, with a planned Christina Aguilera and Rain concert cancelled. All of the drivers and teams are expected to run messages of support fo Mercedes will have #PrayforMH370 on their sidepod this weekend."




© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

Live Coverage - 2014 Malaysian Grand Prix

If you would like to view Sky Sports coverage of Practice 1, click;

Sky Sports F1 HD



Much thanks to +Sadiq Awosanmi

Enjoy!

She Lives! - Sheridan Motorsports SR1

The boys at Sheridan Motorsports have finally got the SR1 running strong! I miss the team and working on her (transferred schools), regardless, I'm positive they will do marvellous at Formula North!





Looks like they got rid of the "custom exhaust" idea I helped fabricate haha. (I need to search through the blog to find the entry I made lol).

Wednesday 26 March 2014

Pan Handling Officers - Toronto

I'm probably late on this however, Toronto Police have come up with a clever new idea to book distracted drivers.


A new law was recently passed for distracted drivers. A minimum amount of $280 to a maximum amount of $1000. The fine is quite high (up from $125), but it's the demerit points (3) which make things interesting.


Perhaps people will finally get the point?


I doubt it. Faith in society = 0%


Hamilton + Roseberg - Doughnuts


The boys from Mercedes tackle the streets of Malaysia to do what they do best - take selfies with fans and destroy the roads with doughnuts. Das it mane.




Sauber F1 - Wind Tunnel Time Lapse

Intriguing process used to help perfect the C33-Ferrari.



Sauber C33 Ferrari 

The team consisting of: Monisha Kaltenborn (TP), Eric Gandelin (CD), Willem Toet (HA), Benjamin Waterhouse (HVP), Beat Zehnder (TM), Giampaolo Dall'ara (HTE), Otmar Bartsch (HTO), Reto Camenzind (CM), Peter Sauber (Chairman)
Drivers: Adrian Sutil (99), Esteban Gutierrez (21), Giedo van der Garde (Reserve), Sergey Sirotkin (Test), preparing for Malaysia.


FBD (Front Brake Duct)
RBD (Rear Brake Duct)







from March 1st 

Force India - Nico and Sergio




The actually managed to finish an entire race this season! I wonder if they can keep it up?

The F1 Magazine - The Malaysian GP

2014 Formula 1 PETRONAS MALAYSIA GRAND PRIX

Petronas GP in Kuala Lumpur 

Practice begins tomorrow at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia. 



Here are the official standings: 





Looking forward to the results of this weekend!

Tuesday 25 March 2014

Facebook Buys Oculus Rift

What?! Why?!


Via Forbes;


Facebook isn’t just buying into mobile messaging — it’s also going for gaming.

In a Tuesday afternoon shocker, Facebook announced it is buying hot virtual reality gaming company Oculus VR for $2 billion. That includes $400 million in cash and 23.1 million shares of Facebook stock. There’s also an additional $300 million potential earn-out in cash and stock based on “the achievement of certain milestones.”

Fresh off Facebook’s $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is showing the world that he isn’t afraid to use his company’s skyrocketing share price to get an edge in Silicon Valley. Facebook stock is up over 150% in the last year and both the WhatsApp and Oculus deals took advantage of that with large stock-cash splits.

“Mobile is the platform of today, and now we’re also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow,” Zuckerberg said in a statement. “Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate.”

See full story Here


Dev unit test:

Google Presents: Android Wear

In addition to its own Glass project, Google has released Android Wear. Sporting an interesting new operating system capable of message notifications and voice commands. Google also promises that your favourite fitness applications will work seamlessly on the device.





(Lenovo owned) Motorola, is the first company to embrace the idea and create their own iteration of the device and implement their own operating system. They coined it "Moto 360".




I'm curious as to how both Android Wear, Google Glass and your cellular device will work in unison. Multiples of the same data displayed on all three at a time? Ah well, I guess only time will tell.

Zing!


Stay tuned for pricing and more in depth information as it becomes readily available.

Engineers...

You know it, I know it ..


Designer Google Glass

In an apparent strategic move made by Google; a partnership has emerged with Luxottica (parent company of Ray-Ban, Oakley, Persol etc..) to aid in a creative design of Google Glass. The deal was approximately made Luxottica's Italian founder - Del Vecchio, 700 million dollars richer.


With over 5000 retail stores in the U.S alone and a rather massively diverse portfolio within other regions of the globe, the initial idea could potentially be a big hit.


Perhaps this could be the key to ridding the high-tech eye wearer's labelling as "glassholes" ...


Maybe?





yea... not so much lol.